HAPPY THAI PONGAL DAY!
Thai Pongal Day, celebrated on January 14th each year in Sri Lanka, was our culture focus for
the month!
This annual festival is a celebration of prosperity (traditionally by farmers) and includes gratitude for the sun, natural elements, cows and the staple food: rice! We learned all about where Sri Lanka was on the globe, and also how people celebrated Thai Pongal day.
We did this through some fun play acting! The picture above are from a group of children in the fours class who were proud to be in the "cattle herd"! Their cattle herder adorned them with beaded necklaces as part of the Thai Pongal celebration (a part of tradition) while other children were cooking pretend pots of rice and milk (our rice was cotton balls!), making floor designs (another element of celebration) and also painting around the house and fixing things up! We did this with plain paintbrushes and pretended.
The kids absolutely loved this play acting, and we took turns participating in the various activities. I also sang the children a traditional Sri Lankan nursery rhyme about a little duck, entitled "Mage Podi Thara". Listen to the MP3 here:
Also don't miss the cute video of our four year olds recapping the information we had learned in class. Reviewing is an essential part of our learning process! (See your at home review questions
below as well!)
REVIEW QUESTIONS ABOUT THAI PONGAL DAY:
1.) What do they cook and eat during the Thai Pongal celebration? (Pots of boiled rice and milk!)
2.) What animal wears a necklace during Thai Pongal? (The cow!)
3.) What do people make on the floor during Thai Pongal? (Colorful designs!)